This bill would amend title 20 of the O.C.G.A. to include the following changes:

1.      Eliminate the provision that a consolidated school would have to be located as close to the center of the district as possible;

2.      Eliminate the requirement that the county authorities provide the superintendent an office in the courthouse;

3.      Change references to the vocational program to “career, technical, and agricultural education;”

4.      Eliminate the Middle Grades program from the 19 QBE funding programs;

5.      Adjust the funding program weights down from the previous weight with the exceptions of Grades 4-5, middle school, and CTAE;

6.      Adjust the charter system “bonus” so that current charter systems are eligible to earn it only through the end of the term of their current charter, and any charter system approved on and after January 1, 2012 would only be eligible to receive a one-time implementation grant, if appropriated by the General Assembly;

7.      Create the category of “student services” to the program components of the QBE funding formula;

8.      Provide at least one counselor for every 450 FTE’s;

9.      Add ESOL and special education components to those earning funding for counselors in FY 2015 and thereafter;

10. Add Gifted and REP components to those earning funding for counselors in FY 2016 and thereafter;

11. Add the clause “which shall include, but not be limited to, textbooks and technology” to the provision that requires all program weights, multiplied by the base amount, to be sufficient to pay the cost of the listed items [which they never have];

12. Allow 20-Extra Day funds to be used during the regular school day and drop the limitation on transportation costs for students participating in such additional classes as  legal expenditures of the funds;

13. Remove funding for the cost of operating central offices except for “certain systems as deemed warranted by the DOE;”

14. Change the base size to earn full state funding for SSW’s/Visiting Teachers from 2,475 FTE’s to 2,420 FTE’s, beginning in FY 2016;

15. Place earnings for school psychologists, special education leaders, and SSW’s into one student services category;

16. Change the requirement regarding notification of vacancies to include advertisement within the system and submission of available positions to a state-wide online job data base maintained by the state;

17. Delete the definition of “Needs Improvement School” and change all existing references to “receiving an unacceptable rating;”

18. Change the grant program designed to attract proven leaders to “Needs Improvement Schools” to those that have “received unacceptable ratings” by the SBOE;

19. Change staff development sponsorship from LUA’s to local BOE’s;

20. Establish a grant program to include “ purchase of technology capital, including, but not limited to, desktop computers, network equipment, wireless equipment, and tablet computers;”

21. Require LEA’s to commit to expanding and paying for high speed bandwidth for five years and to create a plan of use of the bandwidth in each school for instructional purposes with the grant criteria taking into account financial needs and availability of existing bandwidth of LEA’s;

22. Authorize the SBOE, beginning in FY 2015, to utilize up to 5% of capital outlay appropriations for use in the technology grant program;

23. Eliminate the requirements for middle school programs, which includes loss of the required planning time, minimum instruction in core subjects, and required exploratory classes;

24. Change all references of commission charter schools to state charter schools;

25. Authorize the DOE to set fees for one-credit and half-credit courses offered by local systems or a charter school to other systems or charter school;

26. Authorize the local system or charter school to set the teacher compensation for the shared course based on the number of students taking the course and the course fee;

27. Require a parent of a child in a home study program suspected of having a disability to notify the local superintendent of the system of the child’s residence of the suspected disability;

28. Remove from a home school’s declaration of intent:

a.       A list of the names and ages of students enrolled;

b.      Address of the home study program’s location;

c.       Statement of the 12 month period to be considered a school year for the program;

d.      Prohibition of the use of enrollment records and reports for any use except with parent permission, a subpoena or for verification of attendance by the Department of Public Safety;

29. Require attendance records of home schools that document each day of a minimum of 4 ½ hours of instruction that would be maintained by the parent for at least 3 years, but not submitted to the local school superintendent or the DOE;

30. Allow home school attendance records with a listing of acceptable additional documents to be provided at the request of a court or its designated office or a child welfare agency;

31. Create an assumption that failure to maintain required home student programs constitutes deprivation;

32. Release the DOE from the requirement of accepting home school records electronically;

33. Change the parties in a charter to a three-party agreement among a charter petitioner, a LBOE, and the SBOE, and the petitioner after July 1, 2013 would be a party other than the LBOE;

34. Change the responsibility of the Charter Advisory Committee from reviewing and assisting with charter petitions to reviewing charter system petitions, and the committee’s procedures would otherwise remain the same.

35. A LBOE’s approval or denial of a charter petition must occur within 90 days (formerly 60) after its submission.

36. Allow an annual financial audit conducted by a state auditor for the school system count for a charter school, if it is included in the system audit;

37. Eliminate reference to adequate yearly progress data required from a charter school in an annual report;

38. Reduce the length of a lease for charter schools’ facilities previously required to be five years to three years;

39. Allow creation of a nonprofit corporation that could qualify as a public foundation for the purpose of managing donations to public education [several regulations regarding such a foundation are listed, such as open records requirements and reporting all donations and amounts to the Governor and other state officers annually].